Gregg scheduled for bank fraud sentencing tomorrow

A sentencing hearing is scheduled Tuesday for Springfield businessman Richard Gregg, who pleaded guilty in April to one count of bank fraud and one count of bankruptcy fraud. The schemes resulted in more than $3 million in losses for three Missouri banks.

Gregg, formerly principal shareholder and a director of Southwest Community Bank, will go before Judge Brian Wimes in the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Missouri, 222 N. John Q. Hammons Pkwy. The hearing scheduled for 1:45 p.m. is open to the public.

Gregg pleaded guilty to charges April 3, admitting that he sold collateral securing a $2 million loan from Great Southern Bank in February 2009 and kept the profits, with losses valued at more than $1.35 million.

Southwest Community Bank, which failed May 2010, lost more than $1.55 million on Gregg’s personal line of credit and from a commercial real estate fraud scheme.

Great Southern Bank also lost $129,644 and Metropolitan National Bank lost $17,221 when Gregg defaulted on two separate $400,000 loans.  According to a news release from the office of Tammy Dickinson, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, Gregg used collectible automobiles as collateral, which he then sold without paying back the loans.

After being found guilty in February 2013 for bankruptcy fraud concerning his company, 1717 Market Place LLC, Gregg, while on bond, also filed a fraudulent claim attempting to have roughly $45.8 million in unsecured debts dismissed from his personal bankruptcy case.

Under the terms of the plea agreement entered in April, Gregg could serve six years and six months in federal prison without parole and pay roughly $3.1 million in restitution to the victims.